A Dec. 19 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes an image showing a woman seated behind President-elect Donald Trump with a perplexed expression.
“Trump said that the United States and Italy have been allies since the time of Ancient Rome,” reads the text on the image. “The translator’s reaction is priceless.”
It was shared more than 1,000 times in a week. Other versions of the claim spread widely on Facebook and X.
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Trump said the two nations have a shared cultural and political heritage that dates back to ancient Rome, not an alliance. His comments were made during a joint news conference with the Italian president, not the Oval Office meeting in which the translator shown in the image was seated behind him.
The photos included in the image were taken when Trump hosted Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the White House in October 2019.
The pair held a joint press conference, during which Trump made a remark about the countries’ ties. But he didn’t say their alliance dated back thousands of years.
“The United States and Italy are bound together by a shared cultural and political heritage dating back thousands of years to ancient Rome,” Trump said in his opening remarks.
The woman shown in the image wasn’t behind him when he made those comments. Rather, she translated Trump’s remarks during his Oval Office meeting with Mattarella on the same day.
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The U.S. and Italy first established a diplomatic relationship in 1861 and re-established the relationship in 1944, according to the State Department.
USA TODAY has debunked an array of claims related to Trump, including false assertions that an authentic image shows a Trump post telling Elon Musk to “stay in your lane,” that Trump can’t travel to Canada because he’s a convicted felon and that Trump picked Hulk Hogan to be secretary of labor.
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Snopes and FactCheck.org also debunked the claim.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump spoke of mutual US, Italian heritage in 2019 | Fact check
